Impossible 5*

Lemminkäinen

GrimSkald wrote:

Hey, out of the last 46 draws I've made, I pulled one 5*. Pheonix, for whom I had one cover before. At least it wasn't the same cover...

I'm so furious right now I'm this close to just plain quitting. This is just plain stupid.

Please don't quit! You are one of the best voices on these forums.

Bowgentle

GrimSkald wrote:

Hey, out of the last 46 draws I've made, I pulled one 5*. Pheonix, for whom I had one cover before. At least it wasn't the same cover...

I'm so furious right now I'm this close to just plain quitting. This is just plain stupid.

I'm about done.
Aside from daily rewards I have pulled 8 5* covers out of about 170 LTs.
8.

Just went 0/17 yesterday, and I don't think I can take any more gut punches like that.

DC1972

aesthetocyst wrote:

Lemminkäinen wrote:

At least switching from the LTs to CP awards is a tiny step in the right direction.

Yeah, now if you hit every max prog in the game, always, you can afford to whale ONE 5* cover every 6 weeks! Wheee!

How would you be able to whale the 5*? Still luck based and with my luck after 6 weeks I might get one 5* cover for all of my hard work.

TxMoose

DC1972 wrote:

How would you be able to whale the 5*? Still luck based and with my luck after 6 weeks I might get one 5* cover for all of my hard work.

I think aes was referring to the 720 cp for a specific cover upgrade.

GrimSkald

aesthetocyst wrote:

TxMoose wrote:

I think aes was referring to the 720 cp for a specific cover upgrade.

Indeed. 25cp from every PVP and PVE adds up pretty quick. Throw in the smaller rewards from placements and pve nodes, and yep, you can scrap up 720CP in 6wks.

But, damn, that's an intense 6wks.

Perhaps more interestingly, transitioners can make targeted buys (a 3* every event (essentially every other day), a 4* every 4 events (4 progressions plus the loose change, or roughly once a week!)) far more frequently.

It's a win for the wider player base ... a sop to the endgame players.

Yeah. I'm sitting on 503 CP that I was going to use for Classic LTs... but at this stage I'm wondering if I wouldn't be better off saving them for the set covers. The way my draw rate is now...

John Wayne74

I see so many opinions on this and all have some merit. I personally am with the OP on this topic. I have went 0/70 had some luck and am currently running 2/57. Overall I estimate I have drawn over 300 attempts at the 10% rate and have pulled 18 covers myself 9 SS, 7 OML, & 2 Phoenix. And one additional OML from CS after loads of complaining. Putting me at 19 total 5* covers out of over 300 draws. Yeah my luck sucks too, not as bad as the OP but still below the curve.

Here's the thing that everyone is missing. This randomized draw from a short term (definitely) and possibly a long term business approach was ingenious. Sucks for the consumer, but it's a money maker for D3. Pvp is the money side of the game. No revenue is generated due to pve play. So you take this random draw rate publicise the luck based, "no purchase" style then instantly make them purchasable through a back door method. Then insert CP into the fold to not only drive the heavy hitters but have them rope in other saps to buyers clubs to generate many draws for your single purchase. Money money money!!! That was step 1.

Step 2. Enough people start getting these covers and you factor in personality. I personally have had the pleasure of meeting some truly awesome people that have had great success rates in pulling 5*'s and make the game more fun playing beside them. Then the flip side is the "god" complex. There are others whom have made it their goal in life to literally try and control point caps and who gets where in pvp, and have openly admitted doing so. This drives others to purchase more to try and fend them off and also generates more frequent/less productive shield hops to try and obtain a certain point in each event. Hence more revenue to D3. Looking in from the outside, brilliant on their part. From the inside and being on the lower end of the draw rate percentile, it sucks. Hats off to D3 for creating their very own gold mine. Most empathetic sympathies to the OP and others like us who got sucker punched along the way.

amusingfoo1

I just opened 50 this morning (been saving a while). One (!) 5*. And to add insult to injury, it's the only 5* cover I didn't need. Not pleased.

Vhailorx

John Wayne:

I hope you really don't think that you are the first person to realize or post here that randomized rewards is a revenue scheme for demiurge/d3. I am sure people started posting that complain in approximately October 2013, when the game launched.

And pve does make money for the game. In addition to the healthpacks, the big money making element in pve is the essential nodes. Of you want to do well in every pve, you need to have every character in the game, which means buying roster slots (and possibly token packs chasing for those missing essentials).

TxMoose

Vhailorx wrote:

And pve does make money for the game. In addition to the healthpacks, the big money making element in pve is the essential nodes. Of you want to do well in every pve, you need to have every character in the game, which means buying roster slots (and possibly token packs chasing for those missing essentials).

pretty good point there. i know if it weren't for ddq and pve essentials, my roster would probably be ~50 instead of 80. that's quite a bit of hp.

edit: on second thought, effective pvp kind of requires at least a functional featured. loaners can be dragged along, but its not really a good way to do it. pvp'ers need all the 3s, but the bottom ~1/3 or so of the 4s would be completely optional, but that's only 8-10 characters. I'd love to not need the bottom 15 or so 3*s, but here in the qs event, I've been glad several times to at least have a covered qs at 120.

Vhailorx

Moose:

While a strong featured is certainly a huge help for getting 1k easily in pvp, it is not a hard gate on performance. With a strong enough twosome (e.g. jeanbuster or icebuster, or 4cyc/rulk) you can still hit whatever target score you want with enough HP and time. But essentials are an absolute gate on pve. You just cannot play certain (very valuable) nodes without the right characters and that is an inescapable cap on your top pve score.

PvP is the part of the game that pressures players to level thei characters and keep grinding for iso. Pve is the part that pushes us to keep as large a bench as we can afford.

GrumpySmurf1002

aesthetocyst wrote:

John Wayne74 wrote:

...And one additional OML from CS after loads of complaining...

Wait, you complained your way to a free OML from CS?

Oh, man, wait til that word gets around. More tickets for CS, and more allegations of biased CS, inbound!

It's already around. I know of more than a few that have had success doing so. I also know some have been denied. Customer service roulette is fun.

John Wayne74

Evidently the true point was overlooked or you all just don't completely read the entire post. Step two people, step two. They knew this would happen, and likely the true number of maxed 5*'s probably does NOT meet there anticipated numbers yet. Everyone keeps saying D3 didn't expect this. There is your lunacy. Yes they did. They infact most likely counted on it. As much they likely counted on the personality/"God" complex driving up sales as well.

Also there are substantially more Starks bought for shields than any other specific event related item. Which I was speaking specifically there. Roster slots/40 packs are not solely pvp or pve they are both. Shields are specific to pvp. So again I say specific to pve purchases, pve does not generate cash flow. There are items for total game that do generate as well, but not specific to pve or pvp.

As far as health pack purchases. A straight pve player would earn the hp needed to acquire the few times they are actually needed so no stark there either. A straight pvp player can not earn the hp used on shields to achieve 1300++++ for placement every event. Look deeper, I just didn't spell it out but broken down to true individual component costs, Pvp is the main cash flow.

Vhailorx

John Wayne:

I certainly don't want to be rude, but you basically seem to be describing the standard mobile game freemium monetization model and acting as if demiurge/D3 had invented it.

Skinner box mechanics/operand conditioning is a well understood psychological phenomenon. It's used in lots of games, and has been used long before mpq was released. U would actually argue that MPQ isn't a particularly well-implemented example.

Also, how do you know where mpq revenue comes from? I remember Ice saying that roster slots were a major source of revenue back before the roster slot price was capped at 1k. I remember someone at demiurge also saying that shields were not a major revenue source in early 2015 when shield cooldowns were introduced. But I have no idea if that information is still accurate. Have the devs commented on revenue more recently?

John Wayne74

Lol I posted my opinion and supported the OP. Also tried to refute the earlier stated positions of D3 not thinking that there would be so many maxed 5*'s at this point. That was picked apart so I made an attempt to explain. Not turning this into an intellectual battle on this thread. Sorry to have detracted from the point of the OP, whom is the main concern of the thread. No need to proceed down that road. This is why I never post on the forums. Only did because I respect the OP and wanted to show my support. My bad!!

Unknown

No matter what any one person's draw rate is, we should all be united against the injustice of the system. I recognize a lot of names on this thread; I've had a lot of fun playing this game with (or against) them. Even though I've had a bit better luck recently than some (although still below average overall), I'm mad that they've been so poorly treated by the system. We all should be. Look at these numbers.

GrimSkald wrote:

Hey, out of the last 46 draws I've made, I pulled one 5*.

Bottom 2.793%

Bowgentle wrote:

I have pulled 8 5* covers out of about 170 LTs.

Bottom 0.671%

John Wayne74 wrote:

Overall I estimate I have drawn over 300 attempts at the 10% rate and have pulled 18 covers myself 9 SS, 7 OML, & 2 Phoenix.

Bottom 0.747% at 300 draws

amusingfoo1 wrote:

I just opened 50 this morning (been saving a while). One (!) 5*. And to add insult to injury, it's the only 5* cover I didn't need. Not pleased.

Bottom 1.947%

Raffoon

Whatever happened to this thread? This is still a huge issue.

Bowgentle

Raffoon wrote:

Whatever happened to this thread? This is still a huge issue.

Nothing much happened.

I'm now 8/183 and 0/41 since Jan 8th.

Unknown

Raffoon wrote:

Whatever happened to this thread? This is still a huge issue.

Same thing that happened to all the other threads about this. It's being ignored or else met with official silence indistinguishable from it.

Kingofpopcorn

Hi Bow.

I really feel sorry for you. In the meanwhile I m in the same situation.

It is very frustrating to see more and more players skipping the 4* transition (some of them skip also the 3* transition).

Curently I have 12 4* championed, all 3* champed and 6 2* champed. But my OML is 1/1/2, SS 1/0/2 and JG 2/1/1...
I don't want to level others 4* coz it's USELESS.

So I spent more than 600euros this month just to get that s*** and a 4* cyclop who doesn't work.

That's a real pb. But I m sure devs are looking at it.

mpqr7

I've been around 20-30 LTs without a 5*. It would be nice to know there's a guaranteed one somewhere down the line, even if it was after 20 non-5* pulls. It's sad to hit a wall of indifference and extremely insulting when it's a useless token, such as a 6th token of a non-max covered character (pls no more sl purples!!!).